Blog Herding: Community Edition 12/20/12

Regardless of whether you've been playing naughty or
nice, the GIO community turns out an impressive amount of content this week for
you to enjoy during the holidays. Now you better watch out, and go read them
for goodness sake. Have a happy (and safe) holiday.

Welcome
To The Jungle: My Late-Entry GotYAnother gamer blown away by Far
Cry 3, AshaMan3000 pleads to rescind his previous Game of the Year vote,
instead opting to cast it for the latest installment in the Far Cry series.

The
Elder Scrolls: Letters From A ThiefAn interesting personal
narrative from Matt-boy chronicling his salacious behavior as a member of the
Thieves Guild and his time spent lurking around Morrowind's seedier
neighborhoods.

Grand
Theft Auto And The Sandbox Of ViolenceWith the upcoming release of
GTA V right around the corner, quasiconundrum reflects on the series, why he's
not a fan of it, and what it is about the game that draws so many players in.

How
Do You Like Your Multiplayer?A short but rather popular blog
from born4this, who forgoes the weekly podcast this week and instead discusses
the differences in multiplayer modes used by various games and which he likes
best.

Analyzing
Upcoming ReleasesJohn Wrek briefly summarizes
his personal thoughts while providing relevant links to GI articles about a few
upcoming releases that he is keeping an eye on and you probably are too.

Hard
Moments In Gaming – "Save The Rest"Blogs with spoilers don't
typically get featured, but this brilliant piece by Theora Craft covering a few
of the older Halo titles and focusing on a critical but disregarded plot line
is worth making an exception for.

Mass
Effect Meets X-COM: Enemy UnknownParadigmthefallen envisions a
game that borrows elements from two popular titles and what a Mass Effect 3 and
X-COM mash-up might mean for fans of either game.

This
Is Why Journey Deserves To Win A GrammyNever in the 55-year history of
the Grammy awards has a video game been nominated until now. x-XMantisX-x
shares why he feels Journey deserves a shot at best score soundtrack for visual
media.

How
I Would Change Multiplayer In Halo 5A self-proclaimed fan of the
Halo series, Blade discusses the merits of multiplayer and how a few minor
tweaks in Halo 5 would improve an already popular and successful online
experience.

A
Far Cry From Your Typical FPSKyle Wadsworth captures the
beauty (and danger) found in Far Cry 3 with this exceptional blog demonstrating
why so many people are captivated by this shooter that transcends the FPS
genre.

Achievement
Do's And Dont'sLove them or hate them, if
you're playing a video game from this generation then chances are you're
earning some form of achievements. Thegodofwine7 has some thoughts on how they should be
implemented.

An
(Almost) Completely Missed OpportunityAdding to the
ever-growing list of failed movie-to-video game crossovers, Cameron Koch is a
tad kinder with his review of Game of Thrones than most of the others, but the
game still doesn't fair well.

ZombiU
– I Hope You Enjoy Swinging A Cricket BatOne of the
exclusive titles to launch alongside the Wii U, ZombieU received mediocre scores from a
majority of the industry reviewers. Nathan Powers seems to concur with that
conclusion in his review.

Don't forget to send your feedback, recommendations and
community events in to my personal Game Informer account located here to
ensure this feature continues to provide the content you're eager to read.

Video Game Quote of the Week:"Five fierce guards of the isle we be! Watch
for a foreign man, said he! With ears and nose, tongue, hands, and eyes. Its
nature cannot be disguised. If man it be, then man it dies." –Gnomes,
Kings Quest V